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A British filmmaker who has fashioned shut bonds with jihadi brides together with Shamima Begum has known as for Britain to ‘deliver residence’ the households of ISIS fighters who’re being held in Syrian camps as a result of they’re ‘our drawback’.
Andrew Drury, 56, who frequently visits the Al-Roj camp in northeast Syria, mentioned he ‘feels sorry’ for 22-year-old Begum, who left the UK aged 15 to hitch ISIS.
Drury mentioned he has fashioned such a detailed relationship with different overseas jihadi brides on the camp, together with American Hoda Muthana and German nationwide Hafida Haddouch, that they hug him, pose for selfies with him and ask for items for his or her youngsters.
Drury mentioned the UK has a accountability to deliver British jihadi brides like Begum and their youngsters ‘again residence’ as a result of it was not truthful to go away them ‘to be a hazard to the Syrians and the Kurds’ who’ve ‘sufficient hazard to take care of already’.
‘They’re our drawback and we must be coping with our personal mess,’ Drury mentioned.
Andrew Drury, 56, who frequently visits the Al-Roj camp in northeast Syria, mentioned he ‘feels sorry’ for 22-year-old Shamima Begum (pictured collectively within the camp in Could), who left the UK aged 15 to hitch ISIS
From left to proper: Unnamed French ISIS bride, American Hoda Muthana, Shamima Begum, Andrew Dury and Trinidadian Gaylan Su
Drury is pictured hugging Begum after an interview in June 2021
He admitted that he feels ‘responsible’ each time he shares a hug with a jihadist bride or when he flies again to the UK after visiting the camp as a result of ‘he won’t ever know for positive what these girls did underneath ISIS’.
Drury additionally admitted that he and Begum have change into ‘associates’ and the pair converse each time Drury visits the camp.
Begum is amongst a 50-strong British contingent of ladies and kids on the encampment, which homes round 800 households in whole.
Drury, a father-of-four, has change into shut to 2 different British ISIS brides – together with one who’s a mom from Yorkshire.
He has additionally been welcomed by different inmates together with German nationwide Hafida Haddouch and American Hoda Muthana, who who grew up in Alabama, US, earlier than travelling to Syria to hitch ISIS in 2014 aged 20.
Drury, who has visited the camp six instances previously yr, mentioned he poses for selfies with the jihadi brides to assist them really feel ‘included’ and ‘overlook the place they’re’.
Drury, who has visited the camp six instances previously yr, mentioned he poses for selfies with the jihadi brides to assist them really feel ‘included’ and ‘overlook the place they’re’. Pictured: Drury poses for a selfie with a British ISIS bride
Drury additionally admitted that he and Begum (pictured collectively) have change into ‘associates’ and the pair converse each time Drury visits the camp
He additionally mentioned that his working class background has meant he can ‘relate’ to the ISIS brides, who married jihadists who’ve plotted terrorist assaults in opposition to the West.
Drury mentioned: ‘Posing for a selfie with an ISIS bride for me is to make them really feel extra snug.
‘It makes them for a second really feel included and maybe overlook the place they’re, for me it is purely as a result of I’m telling their story and never an expression of friendship as such.
‘I’ve fashioned these relationships to allow me to inform the tales of the ladies within the camp and posing for photographs with them helps break down limitations.’
He added that he feels ‘responsible’ in regards to the shut bonds he has fashioned with the ISIS brides.
Drury mentioned: ‘I really feel responsible, I really feel responsible each time they hug me and I really feel responsible every time I get again from the camp as a result of I’ll by no means know for positive what these girls did underneath ISIS. Solely they know the reality of that.
‘There’s that sense of guilt as a result of I really like my nation and so they joined ISIS however in Shamima’s case I really feel sorry for her, however then in feeling sorry for her I really feel responsible feeling sorry for somebody who joined ISIS.’
Shamima Begum (centre) and her buddy Hafida Haddouch (left) with Andrew Drury (proper) on the Al-Roj jail camp in northern Syria final yr
Drury mentioned he feels ‘sorry’ for the kids on the Syrian camp as a result of ‘it is not their fault’. He added that there are parts of discontent rising amongst the youngest prisoners.
‘Throughout our final go to to Al-Roj in Could we have been within the aspect of the camp that’s speculated to be de-radicalised and a number of the youngsters threw rocks at us.
‘There must be an undercurrent of ideology nonetheless happening or why would we’ve got issues thrown at us?
‘I feel there must be a safeguarding programme, if we within the West consider these girls are harmful why have not we eliminated the children to cease them being radicalised?’
Drury mentioned that it was necessary for the UK to deliver again Begum and different British jihadi brides to the nation.
He mentioned: ‘I feel we’ve got to deliver all those that are, or have been, British residents and their children again residence.
‘Why ought to we go away them to be a hazard to the Syrians and the Kurds? They have sufficient hazard to take care of already.
‘They’re our drawback and we must be coping with our personal mess.’
Among the girls within the camp at the moment are ‘stateless’ and most often their youngsters don’t have any citizenship both, particularly in Syria which is a rustic nonetheless gripped by civil warfare.
The camp is split between these prisoners who nonetheless consider within the ideology of ISIS and people who declare to have renounced it, like Begum.
From left to proper: Journalist Richard Ashmore, American ISIS bride Hoda Muthana, Shamima Begum, Gaylan Su a Trinidadian nationwide (pink high), an unnamed French girl, and Andrew Drury
Begum was stripped of her citizenship in 2019 by Sajid Javid and in February final yr the Supreme Court docket dominated on nationwide safety grounds that she can’t return to Britain to pursue an enchantment in opposition to the choice.
The east London schoolgirl who dumped her veil greater than a yr in the past and now straightens her dyed hair, paints her nails and wears make-up, fled her residence in 2015 to hitch the so-called Islamic State terror group in Syria with two associates each now believed to be lifeless.
She denies her picture change is a publicity stunt.
She has since claimed she was groomed by ISIS and her jihadi husband Yago Riedijk from the Netherlands, who she shared three youngsters with who all died at a younger age.
But after being captured close to the Syrian city of Baghuz as ISIS fighters fled, she lamented the group for being ‘weak’.
She additionally mentioned that the sight of a ‘severed head in a bin did not faze me in any respect’ as a result of it was that of ‘a captured fighter… an enemy of Islam’, defiantly including: ‘I do not remorse coming right here.’
Begum has argued she was ‘an angel’ who had been brainwashed as a young person after which sex-trafficked by ISIS
Drury mentioned that he has acquired loss of life threats and on-line abuse from individuals for his work within the camps.
He mentioned: ‘Individuals consider that the nearer you get to those women the extra you have to be supporting them.
‘I do not assist these girls in any method in any respect, I’ve the identical ideas about them becoming a member of ISIS as any sane particular person would.
‘I consider something they may have carried out with the Caliphate is disgusting, despicable and in opposition to our nation and so they need to be punished.
‘My journeys to the camp are as a journalist and filmmaker, I do not go there to make associates.
‘However every connection I make with the women is real and I do assume they need to have their tales heard.
‘The entry I’ve now’s unbelievable. Usually while you enter the camp you’re taken to a room and the inmate involves see you and as a rule turns down an interview.
‘Now after I go they take me straight out into the tents to see the women as if I’m an accepted consultant for them.’
Drury and Begum speak to a British ISIS bride who can’t be recognized as but for authorized causes
Drury mentioned he believes his working class background have helped him ‘relate’ to the jihadist brides.
He mentioned: ‘I’m not an Oxbridge educated journalist, I speak to individuals in a down-to-earth method they’ll relate to.
‘My background is council property and I’m joyful to say that and I relate to the prisoners as a result of I’ve not come from a privileged background.
‘Maybe those that have visited the camp earlier than come from a background these girls both can’t relate to or really feel intimidated by.
‘All of them appear to collect spherical me now and need to inform me their tales, I haven’t got to ask for it anymore.
‘Generally it is like being a chat present host, besides as an alternative of me being David Letterman in a studio in New York I’m Andrew Drury coming dwell from a jail camp in Syria. Our subsequent visitor shall be Shamima Begum.
‘I feel for the opposite women the rationale they need to speak to me is that they see that in yr that I’ve identified Shamima the turnaround in her public notion has been monumental.’
Drury mentioned he’s grateful to the Kurdish Syrian Defence Pressure (SDF) who management the area and who guard the camps supported by funding from overseas.
He mentioned: ‘With out the SDF offering the safety they do in north japanese Syria it could be unattainable for me to go to the camps.
‘I feel everyone needs the ladies out of those camps however I do not assume the broader worldwide neighborhood is aware of what to do with them.
‘I actually like the girl in command of the camp and the guards and employees are doing a fantastic job, they and the Kurdish individuals have been very hospitable to me each time I’ve visited.’
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